Primetime optimism!

Tuesday-December 21, 2010

Primetime optimism!

Have you noticed that all of a sudden there is optimism? This is great; this is what we need at Christmas time. Economists are saying that there could be 3% growth next year. Sales are up and people are in the malls buying. I am not complaining. When companies are selling, they are growing their sales.

But wait, what could have turned this around? Over the weekend, the Vice President said that the tax extension compromise and the cuts in spending, by the president, are “morally troubling.”

The recession is over, according to some. According to some, if you still have your job, then chances are you will continue to have it next year. The fact of the matter is that there have been so many Americans that have been laid off; companies can no longer afford to let any one else go. New statistics show that a rise in temporary help has occurred. Companies are still not hiring fulltime employees for permanent jobs, but part time jobs are on the rise.

A combination of a few factors is at play. The President lost the midterms, the Republicans won. The extension of the Bush era tax cuts has been voted on and will happen. A new1.2 trillion dollar spending bill was killed and put to rest by the Republicans an a few smart Democrats. The President was forced to go along and has lost this political season. This is why the optimism abounds. This is why people are spending and this is why the employment numbers are looking better. It is not because of the Presidents designs on a socialist utopia or because of his smart appeal and his dominance over his party. It is because Americans spoke and government is starting to listen.

The real test will come in March, 2011, when new spending measures are reviewed and a new spending ceiling is approved by Congress. The real test will be when the Republicans set a course on deficit reduction in March of 2011. The prime time optimism is just what we need now. What we don’t need is the Vice President saying that the cuts and tax extension are morally troubling.

On this date, in1620, the Pilgrims sent the first landing party from the Mayflower. The site they arrived on is the site of what would become the settlement of Plymouth. The Pilgrims were on a moral mission to create a new colony. The colony would have a compact and a set of laws.
Plymouth Colony did not have a royal charter authorizing it to form a government. Still, some means of governance was needed; the Mayflower Compact, signed by the 41 able-bodied men aboard the Mayflower upon their arrival in Provincetown Harbor on November 21, 1620, was the colony's first governing document. Formal laws were not codified until 1636. The colony's laws were based on a hybrid of English common law and religious law as laid out in the Bible.
Moral behavior and the laws that followed became the basis of living and governing in early America. Our laws and our founding documents were written and established with a set of morals.

Our early founders never spent public funds on earmarks and never made themselves more important than the common citizen because of the power they have over spending habits.

James Madison said: in the Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 3rd Congress, 1st Session, page 170 (1794-01-10) . The Annals summarize speeches in the third person, with the actual text of Madison's quote as follows: "Mr. Madison wished to relieve the sufferers, but was afraid of establishing a dangerous precedent, which might hereafter be perverted to the countenance of purposes very different from those of charity. He acknowledged, for his own part, that he could not undertake to lay his finger on that article in the Federal Constitution which granted a right of Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." The expense in question was for French refugees from the Haitian Revolution.

We have arrived at the time that Madison had warned us about. When the vice president speaks of morals, he is not speaking of benevolence or of charity; he is speaking about garnering votes and securing votes by expending the public’s wealth.

In this season, we must remain charitable. We have the right to donate and we have the right to give our personal property to those in need. The government does not have the right to determine what level of benevolence it prefers and when it prefers it. The Vice President is mistaken and confused about morals and that is troubling.

Our primetime as Conservatives is just starting. We must be vigilant and we must insist that the new Congress behaves in accordance to the Constitution and demonstrates good morals in their decisions.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Give charity and benevolence a chance. This is the season of good things our history proves it!